Viktor Orbán: Arm Libya to fight ISIL and migration

VIENNA — Viktor Orbán on Saturday called on Europe to drop its arms embargo against Libya and empower a new government in Tripoli to fight both illegal migration and ISIL, the Hungarian prime minister’s latest controversial proposal to bring the refugee crisis under control.

Speaking after a summit on refugees in the Austrian capital, Orbán also repeated his call for the European Union to erect a “giant refugee city” in Libya, where asylum claims could be processed. Libya is one of the main gateways for refugees heading across the Mediterranean to Europe.

The Hungarian leader, the most outspoken critic of Europe’s refugee policies, appears to have won little immediate support for his suggestion. The provocative proposals seemed aimed at his detractors, including Germany’s Angela Merkel, who argue that Hungary’s hardline approach to the crisis will do little to solve it.

“These are not nice things, but these are necessary things,” Orbán said of the tight border controls and other measures Budapest has undertaken to keep migrants at bay.

Leaders described Saturday’s discussion on new ways to tackle the crisis as both frank and to the point. In a role reversal, Merkel, who has often clashed with Greece’s Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on economic issues, locked arms with him in urging a more progressive refugee policy.

“We see a completely different future for mankind” — Viktor Orbán

Yet Austria and its Balkan allies were resolute in defending their tough measures.

“The usual Euro blah blah was out of the discussion,” Orbán said. “It was very Central European.”

European Council President Donald Tusk also joined the fray, saying on his way into the meeting that it was essential the Balkan route remain “closed for good.”

Orbàn cast the debate in stark terms, describing a fundamental philosophical divide in the EU between leaders who believe borders can be protected and those who think unfettered mobility is inevitable, even desirable.

“We see a completely different future for mankind,” he said.

Orbán’s comments underscored the continued tensions within Europe over how to combat the crisis. Though the situation has calmed over the past year — due both to the closure of the so-called Balkan route from Greece to Austria and the EU’s refugee pact with Turkey — leaders warned that it could explode again if Europe doesn’t take further steps.

“If we fail on this issue, if there’s no progress or if the Turkey deal collapses, then the European project of integration will face a massive test,” said Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern, the summit’s host.

Kern, defending the cap Vienna has placed on new arrivals, noted that if the rest of the EU adopted the same ceiling as Austria, more than two million people could take refuge in Europe.

While the leaders at Saturday’s summit agreed the Balkan route should remain closed, they warned that a collapse of the EU’s refugee deal with Turkey remained the biggest threat and called for contingency plans if that happens.

Turkey has generally honored its commitments under the deal, but ongoing political turmoil in the country as well as differences between Ankara and the EU threaten to undo it.

The difficulty will be to find consensus over a plan B. The Vienna meeting, which included leaders from 10 countries, including Merkel and Tsipras, was primarily an attempt to repair the divisions between capitals most affected by the crisis.

The core of the group, known as the West Balkan Conference, is comprised of countries from southeastern Europe, including non-EU members such as Albania and Serbia. In February, at Vienna’s urging, the forum agreed to close the Balkan route.

Germany and Greece, both of which opposed the move, were excluded, exacerbating tensions. Athens bore the brunt of the closure, with about 50,000 migrants left stranded Greece. So far, other EU countries have only accepted about 4,000 refugees from Greece.

Though Merkel opposed the border closures at the time, she has more recently acknowledged that they helped reduce the flow of refugees to Germany. Nonetheless, about 50,000 refugees have managed to illegally make their way to Germany since the closure, proof, the German leader argued during Saturday’s summit, that the plan is far from perfect.

Berlin’s prescription for the crisis has been to focus on curbing illegal immigration and human smuggling while continuing to allow legal migration. Yet that plan relies on the willingness of other EU countries to accept refugees, something that remains elusive as some countries flat-out refuse to take any.

Merkel repeated that Germany would continue to accept the transfer of refugees under its allocation commitments, including from Greece and Italy.

“Our goal must be to halt illegal immigration to the degree that’s possible,” Merkel said in a brief statement after the summit.

The biggest flashpoint remains Greece. While Turkey has done a better job of patrolling the Aegean, about 100 new refugees arrive in Greece every day. So far, Greece has only send about 500 of the arrivals back to Turkey.

Under the deal, Turkey agreed to accept back those refugees who arrive in Greece illegally from its shores but the process remains complicated and slow.

Greece isn’t the only problem, however. About 7,000 refugees are stuck on Serbia’s border with Hungary, a situation aid groups have warrned it’s becoming a humanitarian crisis.

Orbán said “traditional humanitarian efforts” over the winter should help prevent a catastrophe, but emphasized there’s still a need for “defensive lines” to protect the EU’s external borders.

“Merkel said she doesn’t like political speech with military overtones,” he said. “It’s difficult not to use military language.”

jb

Nick

The Euroclowns secretly agree with Orban. They just do not have balls to admit in public.

Posted on 9/25/16 | 1:01 AM CEST

Szgp

Free movement can become a reality one day. But it can’t be only in one direction. So Orban is correct to say that a solution must involve land in the Middle East.

Posted on 9/25/16 | 3:25 AM CEST

Jay

Why? ISIL is as good as defeated so there are no more refugees.

Posted on 9/25/16 | 8:20 AM CEST

J

I really don’t understand why die Bundeskanzlerin is so adverse to having a strong military arm, a solid defense strategy. Even Roosevelt once said: “Talk soft but pack a big stick if you want to go far.”…

Posted on 9/25/16 | 8:44 AM CEST

Richard Bond

This Hungarian leader offers a solution which would stop the exodus from Africa which is now a daily routine across the Mediterranean. Naturally this plan needs Europe to act in tandem which is impossible given the lax attitude in Britain which blocks 10,000 refugees in Calais. Denial is not a policy. There are 5 million displaced Syrians. We bomb that country every day making the humanitarian crisis even worse. By invading Iraq in 2003 the results are now in full display and who knows what comes next; more regime change in Syria seems to be the hidden agenda by the West?

Posted on 9/25/16 | 2:39 PM CEST

Hooray!

Hooray! The leader of the great Hungarian Empire has spoken full of wisdom!!!

Soon the superior Hungarian AirForce with it’s state of the art stealth fighters will surprise and combat the hordes of ISIL fighters in the Libyan desert from air. Battalions of Hungarian special forces and Hungarian Marines will push back the enemy beyond the Sahara desert. Two Regiments of ground troops with the most modern combat equipment (invented and designed by a Hungarian!!!) will occupy and secure the newly liberated areas, supported by the heroic Hungarian Navy via the Mediterranean coastline…

Neither Libyan resistance fighters nor the people of Libya will be asked any questions, the wisdom of the Hungarian leader will come upon them, it will be swift and unexpected!

Libyans will build, run and maintain the new 1 million people migrant camp just south of Tripoli. They will also process the thousands of refugee applications on behalf of EU member countries. The best: The Libyans will pay for the new camp… they just don’t know it yet!

Hooray to the wisdom of our saviour, hooray to the leader of the great Hungarian Empire!

Posted on 9/25/16 | 4:15 PM CEST

Ranger

@Hooray!
Take your pills buddy!

Posted on 9/25/16 | 4:36 PM CEST

Carlton Brown

Apparently it is a joke (in some quarters) to propose any practical solution to the refugee crisis in Europe today; even from Hungary a country that knows all about loss of territory from WW1. Half of Hungary given to Romania at the Treaty of Versailles in 1918: Transylvania? Some 200,000 Hungarian speakers reside in Ukraine although not recognized by Kiev after their bloody coup d’etat in 2014. No doubt the civil war in Syria will drag on for years (as intended) and sink Europe without trace.

Posted on 9/25/16 | 6:37 PM CEST

Hooray

@Roger: Sorry, I don’t take pills! I take “Béres Csep” this is a medicine invented by a Hungarian, which supposedly even cures cancer… many Hungarians believe in it!!!

Posted on 9/25/16 | 9:23 PM CEST

Johann M. Wolff

@Hooray”I dont take pills”

You should start taking them.

Posted on 9/26/16 | 9:45 AM CEST

Ranger

@Hooray!
Do not be sarcastic then, he’s doing a great job.

Posted on 9/26/16 | 11:36 AM CEST

Strindberg

If the EU writes off the debts of Greece, Tsipras might have an other opinion as for defending the external borders of the EU .. Measure for measure (Shakespeare) …

Posted on 9/26/16 | 1:11 PM CEST

Olaf

too bad we do not have more Orbans in Europe. We would not have any “refugee” crisis nor our societies would have to fear about ISIS attacks. Everything is really so simple. It is just for those lost EU bureaucrats and EU elite that do not know the facts well and therefore ruin our societies. WHo has armed ISIS, or other Muslim groups? Ask yourself why. And why Europe has been suddenly flooded by “refugees”. Ask UK and the US. And FR as well. But even more so, ask Saudis.